U.S. patent application number 11/566143 was filed with the patent office on 2008-06-05 for determining advertising effectiveness.
Invention is credited to Nathalie Criou, Ken Harrenstien, Michael M. Meyer, Edward A. Miner, Hal R. Varian.
Application Number | 20080133342 11/566143 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39476961 |
Filed Date | 2008-06-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080133342 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Criou; Nathalie ; et
al. |
June 5, 2008 |
Determining Advertising Effectiveness
Abstract
Systems, methods, and apparatus including computer program
products are provided for determining advertisement effectiveness.
In some implementations a method is provided. The method includes
identifying a plurality of user events, where each user event is a
tracked online activity or action and identifying information
associated with each identified user event, the information
including at least one of a time and a location of each user event.
The method also includes associating each user event with an
advertisement including relating each advertisement with times and
locations of associated user events and determining advertisement
effectiveness using the information from the identified plurality
of user events.
Inventors: |
Criou; Nathalie; (San
Francisco, CA) ; Varian; Hal R.; (Danville, CA)
; Meyer; Michael M.; (Seattle, WA) ; Miner; Edward
A.; (Mill Valley, CA) ; Harrenstien; Ken;
(Palo Alto, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FISH & RICHARDSON P.C.
PO BOX 1022
MINNEAPOLIS
MN
55440-1022
US
|
Family ID: |
39476961 |
Appl. No.: |
11/566143 |
Filed: |
December 1, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.41 ;
705/14.54 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0242 20130101;
G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06Q 30/0256 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/00 20060101
G06Q030/00 |
Claims
1. A method comprising: identifying a plurality of user events,
where each user event is a tracked online activity or action;
identifying information associated with each identified user event,
the information including a time and a location of each user event;
associating each user event with an advertisement including
relating each advertisement with times and locations of associated
user events; and determining advertisement effectiveness using the
information from the identified plurality of user events.
2. The method of claim 1, where the user events include a search
query.
3. The method of claim 1, where the user events include
advertisement impressions.
4. The method of claim 1, where the user events include a user
selection of a presented advertisement.
5. The method of claim 1, where the user events include user input
to a telephone.
6. The method of claim 1, where identifying a user location
includes: identifying an Internet Protocol address associated with
the user; and determining a location associated with the Internet
Protocol address.
7. The method of claim 1, where associating a user event with an
advertisement includes identifying one or more keywords associated
with the advertisement that match a search query user event.
8. The method of claim 1, where determining advertising
effectiveness includes comparing a frequency of advertisement
presentations associated with user events with the location of the
user events.
9. The method of claim 1, where determining advertising
effectiveness includes comparing a frequency of advertisement
presentations associated with user events with the time of the user
events.
10. The method of claim 1, where determining advertising
effectiveness includes identifying keywords that result in a
greater number of user events than other keywords.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a report
identifying presentations of a particular advertisement with
respect to location and time.
12. The method of claim 1, where determining advertising
effectiveness includes, for particular locations, comparing
occurrences of an advertisement impression with a selection of the
advertisement.
13. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable
medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform
operations comprising: identifying a plurality of user events,
where each user event is a tracked online activity or action;
identifying information associated with each identified user event,
the information including a time and a location of each user event;
associating each user event with an advertisement including
relating each advertisement with times and locations of associated
user events; and determining advertisement effectiveness using the
information from the identified plurality of user events.
14. A method comprising: collecting data from online user events,
the user event data including a time of each user event, where each
user event is a tracked online activity or action; receiving
advertisement data identifying an advertisement in offline media,
the advertisement data including a respective time when the
advertisement was presented; and determining an effectiveness of
one or more advertisements using the user event data and the
advertisement data.
15. The method of claim 14, where collecting data from online user
events further comprises identifying a location of the user.
16. The method of claim 14, where receiving advertisement data
identifying advertisements comprises monitoring television
transmissions.
17. The method of claim 16, where monitoring television
transmissions includes monitoring closed captioning streams.
18. The method of claim 17, where monitoring closed captioning
streams comprises identifying keywords in the closed captioning
stream associated with an advertisement.
19. The method of claim 14, where receiving advertisement data
identifying advertisements includes identifying radio
advertisements.
20. The method of claim 14, where receiving advertisement data
further comprises identifying a location of the advertisement
transmission.
21. The method of claim 20, where the location is a particular
Designated Television Market Area.
22. The method of claim 13, where the determining effectiveness of
an advertisement includes comparing the presentation times of an
advertisement with the user events associated with the
advertisement.
23. The method of claim 13, where determining effectiveness of an
advertisement includes identifying an increase in user events
related to the presentation of the advertisement.
24. The method of claim 22, where the user events are within the
same location as the presentation of the advertisement.
25. The method of claim 13, where determining effectiveness of an
advertisement includes comparing the relative user events
associated with the presentation of different test
advertisements.
26. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable
medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform
operations comprising: collecting data from online user events, the
user event data including a time of each user event, where each
user event is a tracked online activity or action; receiving
advertisement data identifying an advertisement in offline media,
the advertisement data including a respective time when the
advertisement was presented; and determining an effectiveness of
one or more advertisements using the user event data and the
advertisement data.
27. A system comprising: means for identifying a plurality of user
events, where each user event is a tracked online activity or
action; means for identifying information associated with each
identified user event, the information including a time and a
location of each user event; means for associating each user event
with an advertisement including relating each advertisement with
times and locations of associated user events; and means for
determining advertisement effectiveness using the information from
the identified plurality of user events.
28. A system comprising: means for collecting data from online user
events, the user event data including a time of each user event,
where each user event is a tracked online activity or action; means
for identifying advertisements in offline media; means for
collecting advertisement data from the identified advertisements,
the advertisement data including a time when the advertisement was
presented; means for comparing the user event data with the
advertisement data; and means for determining an effectiveness of
one or more advertisements using the user event data.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] The present disclosure relates to advertising.
[0002] Advertisers provide advertisements in different forms in
order to attract consumers. An advertisement is a piece of
information designed to be used in whole or part by a user, for
example, a particular consumer. Advertisements can be provided in
electronic form. For example, online advertisements can be provided
as banner advertisements on a web page. Offline electronic
advertisements can be provided by media sources including
television or radio (e.g., commercials), along with content in
compact disks or digital versatile disks, as well as by electronic
billboards (e.g., in elevators, airports, and along roadways).
[0003] One can refer to the inclusion of an advertisement in a
medium, e.g., a webpage or a television or radio broadcast, as an
impression. An advertising system can include an advertisement in a
webpage, for example, in response to one or more keywords in a user
search query input to a search engine. If a user selects the
presented advertisement (e.g., by "clicking" the advertisement),
the user is generally taken to another location associated with the
advertisement, for example, to another, particular web page.
SUMMARY
[0004] Systems, methods, and apparatus including computer program
products are provided for determining advertisement effectiveness.
In general, in one aspect, a method is provided. The method
includes identifying a plurality of user events, where each user
event is a tracked online activity or action and identifying
information associated with each identified user event, the
information including a time and a location of each user event. The
method also includes associating each user event with an
advertisement including relating each advertisement with times and
locations of associated user events and determining advertisement
effectiveness using the information from the identified plurality
of user events.
[0005] In general, in another aspect, a method is provided. The
method includes collecting data from online user events, the user
event data including a time of each user event, where each user
event is a tracked online activity or action and identifying
advertisements in offline media. The method also includes
collecting advertisement data from the identified advertisements,
the advertisement data including a respective time when each
respective advertisement was presented and determining an
effectiveness of one or more advertisements using the user event
data and the advertisement data.
[0006] In general, in one aspect, a system is provided. The system
includes means for identifying a plurality of user events, where
each user event is a tracked online activity or action and means
for identifying information associated with each identified user
event, the information including a time and a location of each user
event. The system also includes means for associating each user
event with an advertisement including relating each advertisement
with times and locations of associated user events and means for
determining advertisement effectiveness using the information from
the identified plurality of user events.
[0007] Particular embodiments of the subject matter described in
this specification can be implemented to realize one or more of the
following advantages. Advertisers can track the effectiveness of
advertisements both online and offline. Effectiveness of offline
advertising can be inferred from monitoring online activity.
Advertisement effectiveness can be assessed as a function of both
location and time. Advertising costs can be reduced by test
marketing advertisement campaigns in localized areas and
identifying effective advertising, which can then be deployed more
broadly. Online measures of ad effectiveness can be generated
quickly and inexpensively and, since they can be provided in
machine readable form, can be easily manipulated and correlated
with other measurements. Additionally, advertisers can use
marketing or advertising money more effectively by improving
advertising campaigns to target areas or times where the
advertising message is more effective.
[0008] The details of the various aspects of the subject matter
described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying
drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and
advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the
description, the drawings, and the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] FIG. 1 shows an example process for using locations and
times associated with online activity to determine advertising
effectiveness.
[0010] FIG. 2 shows an example process for determining
effectiveness of offline advertisements.
[0011] FIG. 3 shows an example display of online activity over
time.
[0012] FIG. 4 shows an example of a hardware architecture that can
implement the processes shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
[0013] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example advertising
system.
[0014] Like reference numbers and designations in the various
drawings indicate like elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] FIG. 1 shows an example process 100 for using data,
including a time or location, associated with online user activity
to determine advertising effectiveness. For convenience, the
processes will be described with reference to a computer system
that performs the process 100 (e.g., an advertising system).
[0016] The system identifies a user event (step 102). As used in
this specification, the term user event refers to any online
activity or action tracked by the system. In some implementations,
user events are events resulting from user activity on a computer
or other device connected to a network such as the Internet.
[0017] For example, the user event can be a query event. A query
event is a search requested (e.g., by a search engine) according to
a user specified search query. The user can use a browser
application to access a search engine. After providing one or more
search terms into a search field as a search query, the user can
select a search button to request a search according to the search
query. The search engine then presents matching search results to
the user (e.g., as an ordered list of results). The search results
can be links to destination web pages.
[0018] The user event can be an impression event. In one
embodiment, an impression event is the inclusion of a particular
advertisement in a medium, e.g., a webpage, a television or radio
broadcast, or a video. For example, one or more advertisements can
be included in a web page along with the search results.
Additionally, different content providers, e.g., the providers of
particular web pages, can provide advertisements along with the
particular content of the web pages.
[0019] In some implementations, each advertisement is associated
with one or more keywords. When the user's search query matches one
or more of the keywords associated with the advertisement, the
advertisement can become eligible for presentation to the user.
Among a set of eligible advertisements, an auction process can be
performed to select a particular advertisement. Other factors can
also be used to determine which advertisement to present. An
advertiser can designate other demographic or geographic properties
as factors used in choosing a given advertisement for presentation.
For example, the advertiser can prioritize particular locations of
the user or the times of day for an advertisement, thus targeting
advertisement presentation.
[0020] The user event can also be a "click" event. A click event is
a user selection of a presented advertisement. For example, for
advertisements presented along with search results, the user can
select an advertisement by clicking on the advertisement with their
mouse or other input device. In some implementations, when a user
selects an advertisement, the browser directs the user to a
particular web page associated with the selected advertisement
(e.g., a landing page).
[0021] In some implementations, click events can include other
forms of user input. For convenience these activities are also
referred to as click events, although they can involve various
forms of user input. For example, in some implementations a
telephone call or email can be generated when the user selects an
advertisement. The click event can refer to one or more verbal
responses or key presses by the user in response to the generated
telephone call or email. Additionally, click events can also refer
to forms of user input including a mouse over or other input for
interacting with an advertisement.
[0022] When a user event is identified, the system collects a time
and location identifier associated with the identified user event
(step 104). The time of each user event can be ascertained
according to a user action. For example, the time of the query
event can be defined as the time when the user initiated the search
(e.g., by clicking a "search" button). The time for the impression
event can be the time in which an advertisement was included in a
medium, e.g., a webpage, while the time of the click event can be
the time when an advertisement is selected by the user (e.g., by
clicking the advertisement). An advertising log used by an
advertising system can record the time in which an advertisement is
presented to a user as well as the time at which a selection of an
advertisement occurs (e.g., for use in advertising billing
records). Other contextual information can also be recorded. For
example, if the user is browsing a particular piece of content when
the advertisement click occurs, that information can also be
recorded.
[0023] The location identifier is data that can be used to
determine the user's location. The location identifier can be data
provided by the user's computer or an associated server (e.g., an
internet service provider ("ISP")) when the user accesses a network
resource, e.g., a web page. For example, the location identifier
can be an internet protocol ("IP") address of the user. Other
location identifiers associated with the user's connection to the
network can be used, for example, a dial-in access number, or media
access control ("MAC") address.
[0024] Additionally, the location identifier can be user supplied
geographic information, e.g., a city, zip code, or full address.
For example, a user can provide information to one or more content
providers. The user may provide a zip code to a content provider,
for example, to receive localized content. Similarly, a user may
provide information to a search engine in order to receive more
tailored search results.
[0025] The system determines the user location using the location
identifier (step 106). The level of resolution at which the
location is determined can vary. For example, an IP address can be
mapped to a geographic location (e.g., country, city, or service
provider). A lookup table can identify a location using an area
code or area code and prefix number of a dial-in access number.
Additionally, the user-provided geographic information, e.g., a zip
code, can be mapped to a particular location. This data may only
provide an estimate the user's location. For example, a dial-in
access number provides a location of a point of presence for a
server providing access for the user (e.g., a dial-in ISP) and not
the exact location of the user.
[0026] Techniques for identifying the location of the user are
described in more detailed in commonly owned and co-pending U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 10/654,265 "Determining and/or Using
Location Information in an Ad System" filed on Sep. 3, 2003, which
is incorporated here by reference in its entirety.
[0027] The system associates the time and location information of
each identified user event with one or more advertisements (step
108). A database can be used to relate each advertisement with one
or more user events associated with that advertisement. For
example, for each query event, the query keywords can be matched to
one or more advertisements associated with those keywords.
Additionally, the time and location (e.g., an imputed user
location) of each impression or click of an advertisement can be
logged. Thus, each advertisement can be associated with data
identifying the time and location of each user event associated
with the advertisement. User events can be separately considered by
type of user event. Alternatively, the user events can be
aggregated for the advertisement.
[0028] The resulting data can be used to generate reports (step
110). For each individual advertisement, the reports can track user
events by time, location, or both. The time period covered by the
reports can vary according to a preference of the advertiser, or
other criteria. Additionally, the report can break down the data
for an advertisement according to the type of user event.
Therefore, the data can be used, for example, to provide an
indication of times or locations in which an advertisement is more
effective (e.g., because the advertisement generates more queries,
impressions, clicks, phone calls, or other user events).
[0029] Additionally, an advertiser can test the effectiveness of
different online advertisements. For example, an advertiser can
target different advertisements to particular locations such that
the different advertisements will only be presented in particular
locations. The data can then be used to determine which locations
have a higher rate of click events, indicating which presented
advertisement was more effective. Alternatively, the advertiser can
target different advertisements to a same location. The reporting
can then reveal which advertisements were more effective for that
particular location. The advertiser can then test the advertisement
in other locations or run a national campaign based on the
localized data. Additionally, other advertisement variations e.g.,
advertisement text, images, color, and layout can be similarly
tested.
[0030] The time of user events associated with an advertisement can
also be used to test effectiveness. An advertisement can have a
greater frequency of associated user events at particular times of
the day. User events may be higher at a time when a targeted
demographic is online. For example, advertisements targeting
teenage consumers may have a greater number of user events in the
evening. Advertisements can be targeted to particular times or
periods of a day (e.g., morning, evening) based on the times in
which they are likely to be more effective.
[0031] The advertiser can also test different keyword sets in
different locations or applied at different times. Particular
keywords can result in a greater number of associated user events.
For example, particular keywords can be more likely to be used by a
user in a search query, thus resulting in a greater number of
associated user events. Sampling different keywords can identify an
optimal set of keywords which will result in a high number of
impression or click events. In particular, the number of click
events can also be used to identify relevant keywords indicating a
user interest in the advertisement. The optimal set of keywords can
vary by location or time.
[0032] FIG. 2 shows an example process 200 for determining
effectiveness of offline advertisements. The system collects data
associated with online user events (step 202). As described above,
user events can include, among others, query events, impression
events, and click events. The collected data for each user event
can include a time the user event occurred as well as the location
of the user. In some implementations, the collected data is time
and location data collected for user events as described above in
reference to FIG. 1.
[0033] The system identifies advertisements in offline media (step
204). The offline media can include advertisements in several
different forms. The advertisements can include television and
radio commercials as well as electronic billboards or other
electronic advertising. The advertisements in offline media can be
transmitted to multiple individuals at the same time, for example,
as part of a broadcast, cable, or satellite transmission to viewers
and/or listeners.
[0034] Advertisements can also optionally include data that is not
specifically identified as an advertisement. For example, an
advertiser of a particular product can pay for placement of that
product within a television program. An advertisement can therefore
be a reference or use of the product in the television program
(e.g., a character driving a particular model automobile or
drinking a branded soda).
[0035] The advertisements shown in offline media can be arranged by
an advertiser, e.g., by buying commercial airtime for particular
commercial advertisements or product placement in particular
offline media. The advertiser can create the advertisement, or more
often, can employ a third party to create or place advertisements.
An advertiser can target the offline advertisements to particular
markets; however, the advertiser often has little control over the
timing of the advertisement. For example, the advertiser typically
does not know when a commercial advertisement will be broadcast on
television.
[0036] Broadcast scheduling information can be used to identify
when offline media advertising are presented. However, scheduling
information is often inaccurate, incomplete, or only available
after significant delays. In some implementations, for example in
television, schedule files used, (e.g., by the television headends
that receive and distribute television signals), to broadcast
advertisements can be used to identify advertisement presentations.
Additionally, the headend's records of which advertisements
actually aired can be used to identify advertisement
presentations.
[0037] In some implementations, the identification of
advertisements in offline media includes monitoring closed caption
streams for television channels. For example, each closed caption
stream (or teletext e.g., in Europe) can be monitored for the
occurrence of particular keywords. In some implementations, the
keywords are one or more words from a commercial advertisement of
the advertiser (e.g., a product name or one or more phrases from
the advertising script). When a keyword is identified, a time stamp
can be associated with an occurrence of the advertisement. In some
implementations, when a keyword is identified more than once in a
single advertisement, only a single occurrence of the advertisement
is identified. Thus, the keywords identified in the closed caption
stream can be used to identify the time and channel when a
particular commercial advertisement is shown.
[0038] Additionally, television transmissions can vary by location
or market. For example, different programming can be shown in New
York than in Los Angeles. Television advertisers can base
advertising buys on a Designated Television Market Area "DMA",
which signifies a region such as a city or metropolitan area
associated with common television transmissions. For example, the
Boston DMA includes not only Boston but a number of surrounding
cities. One embodiment of a system according to the invention can
monitor television transmissions broken down by DMA in order to
distinguish different locations.
[0039] The closed caption stream can also be monitored to identify
keywords associated with the advertiser from television media other
than commercial advertisements, e.g., within a television program.
For example, product placements can be identified by keywords in
the closed caption stream of television programming (e.g., mention
of brand name in television show).
[0040] In other implementations, other forms of monitoring can be
used to identify advertisements. For example, television
transmissions can include data in forms other than closed
captioning. For example, some countries use teletext to provide
services similar to closed captioning. Also, digital transmissions
can include metadata that can be used to identify advertisements.
Additionally, a speech-to-text application can be used or
individuals can visually monitor programming to identify
advertisements. Also, image recognition software can be used to
identify advertisements in the television transmissions.
[0041] Advertisements can also be identified in radio broadcasts,
including both land based and satellite radio. Radio advertising
companies, e.g., dMarc Broadcasting, can schedule radio advertising
by location as well as by daypart (e.g., morning drive, midday,
evening, weekend). Additionally, the actual broadcast times for the
radio advertisements are tracked. Consequently, the system can
identify the time and location in which particular advertisements
are broadcast by radio stations.
[0042] The monitoring to identify advertisements can be performed
in real-time as the advertisements occur. Alternatively,
transmission can be recorded for later analysis to identify
advertisements.
[0043] The system stores data, which can include time and location
data, for each identified advertisement (step 206). Thus, for each
advertisement, a set of data can provide the time and location of
each advertisement transmission. Additionally, the channel (or
radio station) and programming where the advertisement is
identified can be stored to provide additional information. For
example, particular channels or programming target specific
demographic groups.
[0044] The system compares the collected offline advertisement data
with user events associated with the offline advertisements (step
208). The comparison can include identifying changes from historic
levels in user events contemporaneous with the collected
advertising data. For example, the comparison can identify whether
query events containing particular keywords associated with an
advertisement increase following an offline presentation of the
advertisement. The comparison can be based on particular geographic
locations. For example, a television advertisement in a particular
DMA can be compared with a number of corresponding user events that
occur within that same DMA.
[0045] The effectiveness of offline media can be assessed based on
the comparison (step 210). One or more reports can be generated for
an advertiser indicating when offline advertisements were presented
and the corresponding levels of online user events. For example, if
the advertisement presentation in offline media, e.g., a television
commercial advertisement, induces an increase in user events over
historical levels, such an increase may indicate that the
advertisement is effective. In contrast, if the offline media does
not significantly affect the user events, it can reveal that the
advertisement did not generate a desired level of user
interest.
[0046] In some implementations, an advertiser can test different
offline advertising campaigns in one or more local markets to
determine advertising effectiveness. Using the user activity
associated with presentations of the test advertisements, the
effectiveness of the offline advertisements can be determined.
Additionally, the advertiser can identify whether or not one
advertisement is more effective in one location than another,
thereby selecting location specific advertising to maximize overall
advertising effectiveness.
[0047] Advertising effectiveness can also be assessed in relation
to the time between offline presentation and online user events.
User events shortly after presentation can indicate a high level of
user interest. User events later can also indicate the
advertisement was very salient in being recalled by users at a
later time. However, associating user events with a particular
offline advertisement can become more difficult as the time to user
events increases.
[0048] Additional information of advertising effectiveness can also
be acquired. For example, in television advertising, commercials
are generally broadcast with several other commercials in a
commercial break. The placement of the commercial within the break
(e.g., first, middle, last) can affect advertisement effectiveness.
The system can record the position of the identified advertisement
within a commercial break. Effectiveness of different positions in
the commercial break can be assessed based on the user events
associated with advertisements in different positions.
[0049] FIG. 3 shows an example display 300 of online activity over
time associated with a particular advertisement. The display 300
plots user activity on a vertical axis 302 as a number of user
events. The horizontal axis 304 displays a time range covered by
the display 300. In this example, the horizontal axis covers the
hours of a day from 0 to 24.
[0050] A history line 306 illustrates the historical level of user
events associated with the advertisement during the same time
period (e.g., the average daily breakdown of user events over a 24
hour period). A number of data points show the actual user events
308 for a particular day (e.g., reporting user activity of the
previous day to an advertiser). As shown in display 300, the actual
user events agree with the historical level of the history line 306
except for data point 310. Data point 310 indicates a spike in user
events 308 at a particular time during the day. If the spike in
user events shown by data point 310 correlates with offline
advertising data, the offline advertising can be considered
effective in generating user interest.
[0051] Other displays can be used to represent information
regarding both user activity and offline advertising data (e.g.,
bar graphs, spreadsheets, etc.). Additionally, the displays can be
focused to particular user events (e.g., just query events) as well
as geographic location and particular time ranges (e.g., all user
events in Chicago, or just query events in Chicago). A display can
also include different forms of offline advertising events (e.g.,
data points for the airtimes of a commercial) to further illustrate
any relationship between the offline advertising and the user
events.
[0052] In some implementations, multiple advertisements of an
advertiser can be assessed. A comparison can be made between
advertisements, for example, among a series of test advertisements.
For example, a histogram can show a number of user events for each
of the advertiser's different advertisements. The advertiser can
then determine which advertisement is more effective based on which
advertisement is associated with more user events.
[0053] In some implementations, a central advertising system
collects both online user activity and offline advertising data.
The advertising system can process the collected data to determine
advertising effectiveness or can provide that data directly to
advertisers. The advertising system can collect the online user
activity directly, but receive the offline advertising data from
one or more third parties, which can include the advertiser itself.
In alternative implementations, the advertising system provides the
user activity data to a third party such as the advertiser and the
advertiser compares offline data with the user activity to
determine advertisement effectiveness.
[0054] In some implementations, advertisers can interact with one
or more user interface components to identify preferences and
receive advertisement effectiveness results. For example, an
advertiser can access an account for the advertiser that includes
one or more advertising campaigns. The advertiser can be presented
with a number of menu selections for indicating the type of
effectiveness data as well as the level of granularity. In some
implementations, the advertiser can use a web based interface.
[0055] An advertiser can provide input requesting detailed
reporting based on time and location. Consequently, the advertiser
can then receive effectiveness results for an advertisement across
a number of location and time periods (e.g., 200 cities on an
hourly basis). Alternatively, the advertiser can specify particular
locations or times, or both. Additionally, in some implementations,
the user can select or specify the degree of granularity (e.g.,
daily, hourly, etc.).
[0056] In another example, the advertiser can receive partial
results during an advertisement campaign, for example, when running
experiments in particular markets (e.g., television advertisements
running in particular cities). The advertiser can receive
effectiveness results for those target cities with respect to
time.
[0057] Additionally, the advertiser can request additional
information about an advertising campaign (e.g., after an
advertisement campaign has completed). For example, if the
advertiser initially requested general effectiveness results, the
advertiser can modify preferences to request additional detail
(e.g., effectiveness results at a finer level of detail such as for
particular cities and narrower time periods).
[0058] In some implementations, the advertiser preferences are
provides through the user interface, but effectiveness reports are
sent to the advertiser separately (e.g., a hard copy).
Alternatively, however, the user interface can provide the
effectiveness results to the user including activity displays such
as shown in FIG. 3.
[0059] FIG. 4 shows an example of a hardware architecture 400 that
can implement the processes shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In some
implementations, the architecture 400 includes one or more
processors 402 (e.g., dual-core Intel.RTM. Xeon.RTM. Processors),
an advertisement repository 404, one or more network interfaces 406
(e.g., including interfaces for receiving information on offline
advertisements), a content repository 409 (e.g., for storing
advertisement effectiveness data), an optional administrative
computer 408 and one or more computer-readable mediums 410 (e.g.,
RAM, ROM, SDRAM, hard disk, optical disk, flash memory, SAN, etc.).
These components can exchange communications and data over one or
more communication channels 412 (e.g., Ethernet, Enterprise Service
Bus, PCI, PCI-Express, etc.), which can include various known
network devices (e.g., routers, hubs, gateways, buses) and utilize
software (e.g., middleware) for facilitating the transfer of data
and control signals between devices.
[0060] The term "computer-readable medium" refers to any medium
that participates in providing instructions to a processor 402 for
execution, including without limitation, non-volatile media (e.g.,
optical or magnetic disks), volatile media (e.g., memory) and
transmission media. Transmission media includes, without
limitation, coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics.
Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic, light or
radio frequency waves.
[0061] The computer-readable medium 410 further includes an
operating system 414 (e.g., Mac OS.RTM. server, Windows.RTM. NT
server), a network communication module 416 and an advertisement
effectiveness system 418. The operating system 414 can be
multi-user, multiprocessing, multitasking, multithreading, real
time, etc. The operating system 414 performs basic tasks, including
but not limited to: recognizing input from and providing output to
the administrator computer 408; keeping track and managing files
and directories on computer-readable mediums 410 (e.g., memory or a
storage device); controlling peripheral devices (e.g., repositories
404, 409); and managing traffic on the one or more communication
channels 412. The network communications module 416 includes
various components for establishing and maintaining network
connections (e.g., software for implementing communication
protocols, such as TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.).
[0062] The computer-readable medium 410 includes an advertisement
effectiveness system 418, which is responsible for providing the
features and functions for determining effectiveness of online and
offline advertising as described in reference to FIGS. 1-3. A web
page server 420 is provided for generating the user interfaces
described herein (e.g., for providing advertisers with
advertisement effectiveness data). An accounting system 422 is
provided for handling the accounting of payment schemes described
herein (e.g., payments for advertising services).
[0063] The architecture 400 is one example of a suitable
architecture for assessing advertisement effectiveness. Other
architectures are possible, which include more or fewer components.
For example, the advertisement repository 404 and content
repository 409 can be the same storage device or separate storage
devices. The components of architecture 400 can be located in the
same facility or distributed among several facilities. The
architecture 400 can be implemented in a parallel processing or
peer-to-peer infrastructure or on a single device with one or more
processors. The advertisement effectiveness system 418 can include
multiple software components or it can be a single body of code.
Some or all of the functionality of the advertisement effectiveness
system 418 can be provided as a service to content providers,
advertisers, and users over a network. In such a case, these
entities may need to install client applications. Some or all of
the functionality of the advertisement effectiveness system 418 can
be provided as part of a search engine and can use information
gathered by the search engine determine advertisement
effectiveness.
[0064] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example advertising system
500. The advertising system 500 includes advertisers 502,
advertisement effectiveness system 504, content providers 506, and
users 508. Each of these entities can be coupled to a network 510
(e.g., the Internet) using one or more communication channels
(e.g., wireless, optical, Ethernet). The advertising system 500
also includes offline media 512. The offline media 512 includes,
for example, advertisements presented in television and radio
broadcasts. The advertisements presented by offline media 512 can
be monitored by advertisement effectiveness system 504.
[0065] In some implementations, the advertisement effectiveness
system 504 is an advertisement serving program run by an
advertisement network service provider. Website owners can enroll
in a program to enable text, image and video advertisements on
their sites. These advertisements can be administered by the
advertisement effectiveness system 104 and generate revenue e.g., a
per-click, per-thousand-impressions, cost-per-action or other
basis. User events resulting in presentation of particular
advertisements are used by the advertisement effectiveness system
504 to determine the effectiveness of advertisements. In some
implementations, the advertisement effectiveness system 504
utilizes search technology to serve advertisements based on website
content, the user's geographical location, and other factors such
as search results or user provided keywords. The advertisement
effectiveness system 504 can provide an online environment with
user interfaces for facilitating interaction between advertisers
502, content providers 506 and users 508. The advertisement
effectiveness system 504 is operatively coupled to a storage device
514 for storing information associated with advertisement
effectiveness.
[0066] The various aspects of the subject matter described in this
specification and all of the functional operations described in
this specification can be implemented in digital electronic
circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware,
including the structures disclosed in this specification and their
structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them.
The subject matter described in this specification can be
implemented as one or more computer program products, i.e., one or
more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a
computer-readable medium for execution by, or to control the
operation of, data processing apparatus. The instructions can be
organized into modules in different numbers and combinations from
the exemplary modules described. The computer-readable medium can
be a machine-readable storage device, a machine-readable storage
substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter effecting a
machine-readable propagated signal, or a combination of one or more
them. The term "data processing apparatus" encompasses all
apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by
way of example a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple
processors or computers. The apparatus can include, in addition to
hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the
computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor
firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an
operating system, or a combination of one or more of them. A
propagated signal is an artificially generated signal, e.g., a
machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal,
that is generated to encode information for transmission to
suitable receiver apparatus.
[0067] A computer program (also known as a program, software,
software application, script, or code) can be written in any form
of programming language, including compiled or interpreted
languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a
stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other
unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer
program does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system.
A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other
programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup
language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in
question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store
one or more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer
program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on
multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed
across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication
network.
[0068] The processes and logic flows described in this
specification can be performed by one or more programmable
processors executing one or more computer programs to perform
functions by operating on input data and generating output. The
processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus
can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g.,
an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC
(application-specific integrated circuit).
[0069] Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program
include, by way of example, both general and special purpose
microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of
digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions
and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both.
The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing
instructions and one or more memory devices for storing
instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or
be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or
both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g.,
magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. However, a
computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer can be
embedded in another device, e.g., a mobile telephone, a personal
digital assistant (PDA), a mobile audio player, a Global
Positioning System (GPS) receiver, to name just a few.
Computer-readable media suitable for storing computer program
instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory,
media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor
memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices;
magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks;
magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor
and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special
purpose logic circuitry.
[0070] To provide for interaction with a user, the subject matter
described in this specification can be implemented on a computer
having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD
(liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the
user and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a
trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer.
Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with
a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be
any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory
feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be
received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile
input.
[0071] Various aspects of the subject matter described in this
specification can be implemented in a computing system that
includes a back-end component, e.g., as a data server, or that
includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or
that includes a front-end component, e.g., a client computer having
a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a user
can interact with an implementation of the subject matter described
in this specification, or any combination of one or more such
back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The components of
the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital
data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples of
communication networks include a local area network ("LAN") and a
wide area network ("WAN"), e.g., the Internet.
[0072] The computing system can include clients and servers. A
client and server are generally remote from each other and
typically interact through a communication network. The
relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer
programs running on the respective computers and having a
client-server relationship to each other.
[0073] While this specification contains many specifics, these
should not be construed as limitations on the scope of what may be
claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to
particular implementations of the subject matter. Certain features
that are described in this specification in the context of separate
embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single
embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the
context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple
embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover,
although features may be described above as acting in certain
combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more
features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised
from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed
to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.
[0074] Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in
a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that
such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in
sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed,
to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances,
multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover,
the separation of various system components in the embodiments
described above should not be understood as requiring such
separation in all embodiments, and it should be understood that the
described program components and systems can generally be
integrated together in a single software product or packaged into
multiple software products.
[0075] The subject matter of this specification has been described
in terms of particular embodiments, but other embodiments can be
implemented and are within the scope of the following claims. For
example, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a
different order and still achieve desirable results. As one
example, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not
necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential
order, to achieve desirable results. In certain implementations,
multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Other
variations are within the scope of the following claims.
* * * * *